WRITER: Chad Lawhorn

At KU a mask may help the unvaccinated not miss class due to quarantine, but not at Lawrence public schools

Updated at 2:09 p.m. Wednesday Students at both KU and at Lawrence public schools are required to wear masks while in classes, but university students appear to be getting a much bigger benefit from wearing those masks. KU leaders are openly telling even unvaccinated students that they are unlikely to have to miss school due to being a close contact to a fellow classmate who has tested positive, as long as ...

COVID statistics holding relatively steady as KU students return; Girod praises mask-wearing efforts

It has been just more than a week since KU students returned to classes on the Lawrence campus, but despite the thousands of new residents in town there hasn’t yet been a resulting boom in COVID cases. The latest numbers released by Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health show relatively stable COVID metrics for Douglas County, but serve as a reminder that the virus is still claiming victims. One new death was ...

Former Masonic Temple building to become haunted house; downtown plans to host $10K cornhole tourney

On any given night, the former Masonic Temple building at 10th and Massachusetts streets already is the downtown spot that produces the most fear of a pending mummy attack. (If you say otherwise, I would be interested to know what the drink specials were on that night.) Now, the eerie old building is set to become a haunted house. If you have driven by the big Egyptian Revival-style building and its huge stone ...

Rural winery to open tasting room, wine shop in downtown Lawrence

For more than a decade, Crescent Moon Winery has had a business strategy that includes people going to look at the famous Grinter fields of sunflowers in Leavenworth County and then getting a glass of wine or two at the winery just down the road. Now, there’s a twist to that strategy. Soon, people will be able to shop at Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop — or any other downtown retailer — and then get ...

Longtime vintage shop in downtown to close; Arts Center gives details on planned annex

There are many side effects of the pandemic, and at least one of them involves a calendar, a longtime downtown retailer has found. The Blackbird Trading Post is closing after nearly three decades in business, and its owner said the pandemic definitely played a big role. “We were closed for a coupe of months,” owner Cynthia Trask said of the earlier days of the pandemic. “I slowed down during that time, ...

KU details COVID quarantine protocols; standards reward those who are vaccinated, wear masks

There’s one test you can pass at the University of Kansas this semester that still won’t do you much good — a COVID test if you are an unvaccinated student. Students who are deemed to be a close contact of someone who has COVID will be required to quarantine, even if they can show proof of a negative COVID test, according to protocols that KU highlighted to faculty and staff on Friday. That’s a ...